The sun. [volume] (Morris, Stevens County, Minn.) 1882-1895, 1887-04-21
London TelegraDh

1t might be thought that the
Imagination OF the best sea novelists
and the endless variety ofdangers and
disasters recorded in the logs of voy-
ages would have exhausted all the ad
ventures possible to sailors. A fresh
proof however, has been afforded that
Truth is not only stranger, but
more original and more inventive than
Fiction, if we may feel sure that the
tale is true. In that case we do not
call to mind aly picture of seafaring
peril so utterly novel, thrilling, and
apparently without hope of escape as
that which has been published in a
New York newspaper. 1t pur-
ports to come from the lips of an old
whaler, who, while off Cape Horn, was
sent in boat, with four other hands,
to kill, for the sake of fresh meat, two
white bears seen on an iceberg. The
men reached the berg, shot the two
animals, and, putting them on board
the boat rowed back for their ship.
At that instant a thick snow-storm
came on, in the midst of which they
lost sight of the vessel, and were there
fore obliged to return to the berg. Max
ing the boat fast to it's foot, the five
men climed upon ledge, and there
cut a cave in the ice for protection
from the bitter wind. They also strip
ped the bears of their skins and spread
these upon the floor of their chilly cav
ern; and, having all this fresh meat,
as we'll as biscuits enough to last a
week, together with means to made a
fire, the immediate prospect was not,
perhaps, SO utterly desperate. Yet
the ultimate terror of it could
not be concealed from such intelligent
seamen. The account states that at
the first these Americans were all self
possessed and even cheerful; but the
writer confesses that when they lay
down to sleep the realism OF their dis
NAL position we'll nigh drove the
strongest among them mad. Had
begun" he says. Figuring on our
chances, l myself should have gone
wild" The berg, OF course, was all
the while driving before the strong
east wind, which almost always blows
around the Horn Their ship, although
sure to come in quest Of them, might,
therefore, cruise for weeks or months
without sighting them. They might
drift into Antartic circles, never visit
ed by sail; their berg slowly melting
away where submerged, might at any
moment capsize and drown them or
come in contact with other floating
masses Office and besplintered to pieces.
They would not, indeed, want for
drink. because an iceberg, in forming,
has always fresh water on the surface.
Yet, if flesh and blood could stand the
savage weather of those latitudes,
their food must too surely waste day
after day, with no chance OF renewal
If then, we may believe the narrative,
it must be confessed that human
creatures never found themselves in a
more awful strait. True or false, how,
ever, the adventure narrated is posi-
BILE enough, and we may therefore pur.
sue the fortunes OF the five Americans
with AL interest not much diminished
by the doubts which must arise as to
their veracity.
The men lay down to sleep in their
icy chamber, WEAKNESS being stronger
upon them than hunger or thirst, An
hour before daylight they were ab-
rlptly startled from slumber by
shock and crash louder than that of
@ hundred thunder storms bursting
together from the zenith. There was
II grinding, crunching uproar, mingled
with the noise OF huge masses
tumblina into the sea, and the smash
ing of the great berg rolling on the
waves, the fact being that another
large berg had come into collision
with them, and knocked hugh fras.
ments from the one on which they
swan. After this the men could sleep
that night no more, but watched for
day-dawn. When it broke a dismal
scene was disclosed to their gaze; the
dark and foaming waves of the sea
were running high all around them
under an inky sky covered With black
and ragged clouds, The spray was
wildly flying over the platform where
they sat, and two other large icebergs
might be seen floating i'll dangerous
proximity. Far and near the ocean
was covered with tossing paek-ice,
which would tea surely prevent, or at
any rate hinder, their ship from seek
ing to come near to them. When the
men gathered again, after exn!orins
their berg, their faces We've naturally
gloomy, but they ate and drank
g little, managed to kindie q small
fire i'll the cave with bottom
boards from the boat, and then slept
the morning away. At noon they
were awakened by fresh noises, as
we'll as by piercing cold. The stormy
wind had twisted round their frozen
refuge, and was blowing With search
ing severity into the cavern, while the
f9ot af the huge raft OF ice on which
they tioated were grinding and pound
ing through widespread heaving packs
of fioe, chrushing and splitting those
frozen flats with an .outQrY, the mar
rator says, las il thunderbolts were
ripping Through thick forest" For.
, sunately their berg swung round again
soon afterwards, and put them once
more to leeward, when tha cold be-
came less severe, and they could eat
and sleep. The wind had been pro
viously blowing hard from the east
ward but when they awok the next
morning it had changed to the south,
The dark sky had furthermore clear,
ed, the day was bright and soft, with a
smooth sea; but the effect OF the change
was dangerously to thaw the ice, and
produce cracks and explosions in it's
inner mass. During all this time the
cast-aways kept their small, are burn.
ing, with as much smoke as possible,
their only chance being that some
passing whaler, or some steam ship
Founding the Horn, might spy the un.
usual sight of smoke. rising from q
berg, and take them Q It was on
the second day, according te the pub
fshed story, that the American sailors
started up three white foxes from O
| shoulder of the berg. The narrative
says they did not shoot them because
they feared the concussion made by
their musket shots might crack the
ice. This is an inqidsnt which tries
our faith ENTHUSIASTICALLY, since it is
hard 10 see what the foxes could find
| to live upon. and these intellioers